Second link canal project to be ruled out

New Delhi: A proposed second link canal between the Ravi and the Beas in Punjab is likely to be ruled out following a belated realisation by the government that one of the banks of the Ravi river at the proposed site lay in Pakistani territory.

The Union cabinet had cleared a proposal to build a barrage on the Ravi in February this year in a bid to utilise the extra water that was flowing into Pakistan. The proposal—initiated by the Haryana government, which wanted to utilise this extra water—was identified as one of the 14 national river projects and put under the Accelerated Irrigation Benefits Projects (AIBP).

However, officials have now discovered a number of problems in this project including the fact that the other bank of the river at the proposed site was in Pakistan, which ruled out the project at that site.

Officials now admit that this second link should not have been included in the list of national projects on the basis of “sketchy concept report” prepared by Haryana government.

The sharing of river waters between India and Pakistan is governed by the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960. Recent assessments had indicated that India was letting go more water to the Pakistani side than was required under this Treaty. To utilise this water, assessed to be to the tune of three million acre-ft (one acre-ft being the volume of water required to submerge one acre of land by one foot), the Haryana government had proposed a barrage on the Ravi close to the Indian border with Pakistan. Haryana wanted this water to be diverted to its land for irrigation purposes.

Punjab, which had not been consulted by Haryana on the issue, had opposed this proposal and its chief minister Parkash Singh Badal took up the matter with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh some time ago.

Punjab, which hosts the Ravi River, had raised a number of objections to the project including the plea that the proposed canal would cause water-logging in its territory and would be an environmental hazard. It also questioned the correctness of the assessment of surplus water flowing into Pakistan, something that the officials at Centre now concede. Sources said the amount of unharnessed water flowing into Pakistan had not been systematically assessed and in the absence of such a basic requirement preparation of even a concept report on the project was not feasible.

Sources were categorical that without examining the feasibility of this link canal, it should not have been declared a national project.

A scientific assessment of the waters beyond the last monitoring station at Madhopur was being conducted by the Central Water Commission, which has identified a suitable site to measure the flow data.